A Recipe For Instagram Success: Food Art

By

Ellen Emmerentze Jervell

Jun 19, 2013 2:00 am ET

Ida Skivenes’ decision last summer to make an edible bear and an equally edible fox by placing banana and strawberry slices on pieces of toast and then uploading a picture of her creations to Instagram turned out to be one of the most valuable ways she could pass the early morning hours.

A 28-year-old statistician who grew up amid the fjords and mountains in a tiny town with 15 inhabitants in western Norway, Skivenes quickly amassed a following of 10,000 on her @idafrosk Instagram account as she expanded her collection to include such masterpieces as sheep made from cottage cheese, grass made of kiwi and a dog made from oatmeal and raisins.

“I had no idea that I was good at this,” Skivenes said in an interview. “But I must have some hidden food art talent, I guess.”

The brass at Instagram apparently agree. After Skivenes, now living in Oslo, steered her art in a more serious direction at the beginning of the year – using a wide array of breakfast foods to recreate pieces by van Gogh, Munch, and other renowned artists – Instagram recommended users follow her. Within a day, 25,000 new followers latched onto the @idafrosk account and that number grew to 100,000.

In the first days after Instagram’s recommendation, local and international media were all over the story, looking to interview the statistician turned food artist. She talked to outlets ranging from the BBC to Norwegian breakfast TV shows.

Skineves now plans to take a year off from her job to complete a book featuring her artwork. She’s taken up writing about food for two Norwegian magazines and giving presentations to companies and others interested in her success.

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